Sophisticated but confused: The impact of brand extension and motivation on source confusion

Legal and consumer psychology scholars have focused recent attention on source confusion, which is the likelihood that consumers will be confused regarding the company that is a product's source or sponsor. The authors evaluate two potential antecedents of source confusion: (1) consumer motivation and (2) a brand extension that has been undertaken by a competitor. There have been disagreements in the courts, the scholarly legal literature, and the consumer psychology literature concerning the nature and extent of the impact of these two variables on the likelihood of consumer confusion. Based on schema theory, the authors hypothesize that consumer motivation and brand extension will influence the likelihood of source confusion. An interaction between the two variables is proposed, with consumer motivation having an effect that is opposite to the effect typically identified in the literature and case law. The results of a controlled laboratory experiment support the theoretical predictions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of consumer emotional disclosure on fairness perceptions

One way consumers cope with an unfair consumption experience is to express how they felt about it. Understandably, these disclosures are often rich with emotion. Does emotional disclosure in this context influence consumers' perceptions of fairness? Drawing hypotheses from the emotional disclosure literature, this research reveals that writing about emotions improves consumer fairness perceptions and satisfaction. However, the benefit of emotional disclosure disappears if the disclosure is solicited by the company perceived to be responsible for the unfairness and they do not offer redress. The findings lead to the recommendation that companies provide and facilitate opportunities for consumers to disclose to third parties the emotions arising from consumption experiences perceived as unfair. Implications for managing customer feedback, complaints, and negative word‐of‐mouth are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Self-Selection and Optimal Nonlinear Effluent Charges

This paper proposes an optimal nonlinear effluent-charge system forenvironmental pollution control. This system achieves the first-bestoptimum through a self-selecting mechanism under asymmetric information.The proposed system can also control the level of revenues so as to reducethe excess burden of environmental taxation, and discriminate among thepolluters. The paper also compares this system with the conventional lineareffluent-charge system and discusses some economic implications ofimplementing the system.     

Optimal tax depreciation

Currently, solutions to the choice of depreciation methods for tax purposes are obtained through numerical simulation. This paper presents a simple capital budgeting technique which, in conjunction with Descartes' rule of signs, analytically derives the optimal regular depreciation method under the existing U.S. tax code. This technique is then used to determine the optimal depreciable life for short-lived assets and, finally, the analysis is extented to cover the choice of depreciation methods under the Class Life Asset Depreciation Range System.     

JUMPING THE CURSE: EARLY CONTRACTING WITH PRIVATE INFORMATION IN UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS*

This article introduces a new model of early contracting. Employers who have private information about the applicant's ability worry that applicants who accept their offer are precisely those who were not offered other jobs. To avoid this winner's curse, employers anticipate the time of contracting. The model is developed in the context of university admissions, and is shown to be consistent with several stylized facts in that “market.” We show that, in contrast to received wisdom, allocative efficiency may be improved by the presence of early contracting.     

Empirical analysis of real and financial volatilities on stock excess returns: evidence from Taiwan industrial data

This paper tests the relation between stock excess returns and risk factors measured by volatility. The sources of the volatility are based on the volatility of macroeconomic factors and time-series volatility. To model the macroeconomic fundamentals, we divide the risk into real and financial volatilities pertinent to Taiwan's economic environment. By examining the data of indusry excess returns and market excess returns, we find evidence to reject the hypothesis that the stock excess returns are independent of the real and financial volatilities.     

Ethical Evaluations of Business Activities and Personal Religiousness

The study examines the relationship betweenmoral judgments of a business situation with ethicalcontent and personal religiousness. The findingssuggest that ethical interest and behaviour arerelated to religiousness. However, only the ethicalphilosophy of contractualism was found to be relatedto religiousness, while moral equity and relativismwere not.     

Home country effects of foreign direct investment: From a small economy to a large economy

Previous studies on home country effects mainly focused on FDI from large developed economies to other countries. But today's super recipient is a relatively larger economy than its investors and many of these investors are not classified as “developed economies.” A simple Ak type model implies that a small and more developed country investing in a large and less developed country will experience decreases in both employment and income disparity (compared to the recipient country) as the less-developed recipient country gains the higher technology of production through FDI inflows. The empirical results for the Four Tigers (source countries) and China (recipient country) are consistent with our theoretical model of FDI outflows. We also find that FDI outflows to China decrease the ratio of exports to GDP only for small source countries, even though a higher investment in China raises the share of these countries' exports-to-China to China's total imports.     

Building e‐support for cause‐related marketing through strategic alliances

New opportunities for nonprofit organisations to reach new donors and volunteers are being generated by an accelerated interest in cause‐related marketing on the part of both consumers and business firms, in conjunction with the emergence of the Internet. Together, these conditions have created a climate conducive for nonprofit alliances with corporations to become one of the fastest growing forms of marketing today. This paper examines online cause‐related marketing from the fundraiser's perspective, and sets forth a series of marketing management implications of building relationships with businesses and their customers as potential donors on the Internet. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.